My Hiate
by SongSiren
Summary: The Leaf Village had fallen. Sakura is left alone as her friends melt into the shadows. What will she do? Will she risk her life standing up for her home, or reliquish it to stand beside her village? DramaAngstRomance somewhat
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I read a fanfiction which showed the future of Kohona, except this one was with an awful future. I guess I'm doing that, only making it more kid-friendly and twisting it until it would be unrecognizable to anyone except the author, and even then, they might have trouble. So read and enjoy (maybe).**

**I've decided that this one shot is no longer an one shot, but a two shot.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

Sakura collapsed shakily onto her… her parent's bed. They wouldn't mind, they were in their eternal resting place in a bed of cold dirt. Cold dirt. Her parents, the ones who brought her into the world and raised her for sixteen years before she'd left, didn't even get a proper burial.

Of course, no one else did, either. After everything had… gone downhill, there simply wasn't enough room for all that had died. So they were buried where they dropped. Then again, her parents had gotten off lucky. They had chosen not to fight. They had chosen to give in. They watched as their village, the home of Harunos for the hundred years it had been in existence, had been mutilated and warped into a breeding ground for scum and filth by _one of its own villagers_.

_No, not one of u… _Sakura began to think angrily, but she couldn't even get the word across her mind. _… one of them. He's a traitor, a murderer. He's brought betray to a level his brother could never even imagine. _

Yes, she was talking about him. Uchiha. Sauske Uchiha. Her childhood friend, her crush, her most hated enemy. Everyday she saw his handsome face and everyday she wished to duck behind a trashcan to empty her stomach in revulsion.

But she couldn't and she didn't. He had her trapped now, like a fly… no. If Shino were here, she would get a lecture on how resilient, how strong the fly was. She was a butterfly, a moth, her wings barely dried from her long, pusillanimous hibernation. And the spider watched her with red eyes.

Everyday as he saw her enter the same room as him, he would smile. She once longed so desperately for that smile it made her chest hurt with the desire of it. Now as his eyes caressed her emancipated form and his smile widened to unnatural lengths, all she wished to do was kill him for it.

But she couldn't. She could kill any of his underlings, but not him. Something would hold her back, just as it had held everyone else back. But there was another reason. She didn't want to die fruitlessly. Yes, she would gladly die and take him with her, but that was not the case. She might have been one of the strongest kunochi the Leaf Village had ever seen, but still even she was no match for him. Only one could do it, could handle it, and he was in hiding. Or dead. She had stopped telling herself that he might be otherwise long ago. There was no point in hoping when the chances were so slim that even the most hopelessly optimistic person would sigh and give up.

Sauske had gotten what he wanted, unimaginable power, and had killed his brother. He had achieved his goals, and more. But when she knew him, at least when she first knew him ten years ago, this was not what he wanted, not this way.

It seemed that she had barely fallen asleep when the city alarm cut into her sleep, piercing her brain with the sharp bird's call of a noise. Groaning tiredly, she forced her aching limbs to push herself up. She hadn't felt this tired since she was training with Tsundae, and even then she was never this cold.

Every man, woman and child woke up at four, before the sun rose over the city wall. This was the exact time he used to get up. Even if the child didn't have school (for the parents always had work), they were woken up. Uchiha-sama, as he wished to be called, said that it gave the children extra time to train.

Sakura walked down the narrow hall and past the hold in the wall, from where a small paper bomb had exploded during the invasion. Now that buildings were falling apart and people who technically owned homes were more homeless than the people sleeping in the cardboard boxes at night, no one bothered to repair his or her houses. For most, it was a useless venture, with all the fighting that took place inside the city. For a few, those who had more information that her, it made it all the more easy to disappear.

Sakura stared into her cracked mirror with disgust. Her bright green eyes had dulled to an almost gray. Her pink hair, which now brushed her shoulders in broken straw ends, greasily stuck to the sides of her face. Her hiate was long gone, all Leaf Village hiates were. Her cheeks were sunken in and clothes were tattered. Her fingernails were dirty and her hands forever stained. Along her neck, an evil tattoo that looked something like a chain stretched. A crack in her mirror could not hide her ugliness.

No, fighting didn't cause this crack. She caused it. She had stabbed at her reflection with a kunai a few days after… they had left. She had screamed at herself. "Bitch! Coward!" her neighbors could hear her and apparently, so had he. She had put the kunai to her wrist, a grim smile twisting itself onto her then still-full face.

But a hand, a clean pale hand had grabbed her. "Now, now. Can't have that, can we?" his hot breath slithered into her ear like the snake its master was. She shivered as his arm wrapped around her abdomen, not with the excitement, but with coldness in his touch. It was as if blood no longer coursed through his veins. "Sakura, how could you kill yourself? I thought you were braver than that." That had done it. That had blown away what was less of insanity… or sanity, whichever you saw it as. The kunai had fallen from her nerveless grasp, into his waiting palm.

He had held onto her for a long time. He gently fingered the kunai, as if in deep thought. He had whispered things to her, about Kakashi, about Naruto. She couldn't remember now if they were just spiteful words, or if he had been asking her where they had gone. It didn't matter now, she didn't know. When she had asked, any of them, they responded with "If you do not know, then they can not force it out of you." When minutes or hours had gone by and she had said nothing, he frowned and whispered to her again. And then he bit her.

And she was where she was today, standing in front of a mirror, wishing for that kunai she had no nerve to use. Wishing that she had taken it and twisted it into his heart.

She ran her fingers through her hair and left the house. As she walked the dirt roads that so long ago she walked with Sauske and Naru… the image of a laughing face floated in her head. She stopped. Before her, was an older version of that face, though it no longer smiled. He was serious and sad.

"Don't you worry, Sakura. We'll be back soon. Believe it!" He chuckled the last part out, knowing how much she hated it. He gently cupped her chin and leaned forward.

Sakura closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was standing alone in a dirt road. "Naruto." She whispered quietly.

That had been her good-bye to the blonde haired Kyubbi master. He had been there, and an instant later, he was gone. Him and everyone else who had survived had gone, and left her and anybody else like her. Those who weren't strong enough to part with this place they and their families called home for generations. The only free ones left from the Third and the Fifth's reigns were herself and Hinata. The rest had perished or moved on. They had promised they would come back, would take back their village from the turncoat, and here she was, two years later, alone except for the pieces of lonely debris in the street. She sighed and bowed her head, and walked along.

As she got closer to the center of the city, instead of getting better, the city got worse. People walked the streets with drawn faces that would have made people in the Wave Village look downright cheerful.

Her stomach jerked as she saw the soaked-in bloodstains that might have been Chogi's Shinkamaru's fathers. Ichikaguke's or his daughter's. Kurenai's or Asuma's. Or both together. They had died fighting the final onslaught, side by side. It couldn't have been Gai's. He was driven from the sky to the top spire of the Hokage's tower by three strong Sound ninja and his rotting corpse remained there, until it disappeared mysteriously. No one was absolutely sure what had happened; one night it was there, the next, gone. But the next day there were also three freshly dug graves next to the Third and Fifth's graves and three names added to the KIA stone. When Sakura visited it, she was sure she heard, "We're even," from the shadows. She had smirked. Even with one leg, Kakashi was as fast as ever.

She swallowed hard as she passed the broken window of Yammato's. Inside, vases were all smashed and flowers would turn to dust if a human's clumsy fingers were to handle them. Her face wrinkled into a snarl as she looked at the only not shattered vase. It had been Ino's favorite, an engagement gift from Shikamaru to her. Some sadist or another had filled it with Ino's blood long ago and placed leaves into it. Her body had disappeared, but that stain halfway up the crystalline glass immortalized her memory.

Not being able to take anymore, she ran, tears mixing with dirt behind her. People saw a pink streak and thought nothing of it. Everyday people went insane and thought they could run for it, but they were always captured, tortured, branded traitor and waited in a public cell until execution day.

But Sakura was not running away from the village. No, that was impossible now. She was trapped like so many others. She cringed as she saw a small Hyugga run down the street. He was too young to remember anything from before this. Too young to remember the good times, the Hokages of past, or even the fate worshipper brother of his.

Neji had gone with them, of course. He urged poor Hinata to come, but to no avail. She was trapped more literally than Sakura. ANBUs watched her every move like hungry vultures watched a dying desert animal. She was forced to raise all of her clan members on a strict regimen, the children's worse than the adults'. She had to watch as her clan fell away from her.

Sakura entered the Hokage Tower. As she came in, young Konohamaru handed her a hiate. She barely looked at the young defeated man as she stifled a sob with her hand as she tied it to keep her hair back. She felt a tiny prickle on her neck. She could feel Uchiha-sama's smug satisfaction.

She had thrown the hiate away last night, declaring it would be the night she gave up the damned village for one much more suited to her lifestyle choice. And her parents'. But just as she had taken a kunai to her chest, her throat began to constrict painfully. Her hand had slipped and she had cut herself shallowly. A threatening presence had been felt in the back of her mind, and she had gone to sleep, the scar that would be on her chest already beginning to pucker unattractively.

Dismally she walked up the steps to the Hokage's office, bumping shoulders with others who had to get to the upper floors. The Third and Fifth had both chosen their offices from many, but both were bathed in sunlight. Not this Hokage, though. He chose an office in the heart of the tower. It wasn't beautiful, but it was affective. There were stairwells and secret trapdoors that allowed him to use it at his disposal. It also allowed him to sneak up on whoever was in the study.

She entered the room, which looked as interesting as a fence, and took a spot next to a young Hyugga. The entire room's perimeter was given to ANBU level shinobi. They were the Hokage's elite guard. Most of them were Hyuggas trained to love their Hokage, even if he was a false one.

There was a faint _pop! _and Sauske was sitting at his desk, already writing. He had never picked up Kakashi's quiet flare for popping up impressively with big clouds of smoke and acting as if it was nothing. What Sauske did was actually nothing, and he had no reason to act. Sakuara mentally glared, but kept her face placid and unresponsive. She wished for one of the masks that the Hyuggas were allotted.

Sakura watched Sauske for a few minutes. He hadn't changed at all; he still looked like a teenager, and probably would for the rest of his life. He brushed some figures onto the paper slowly. She didn't belong there, not really, anyway. Her unmasked face and uncloaked body told anyone as much. If someone to ask, Sauske would tell them that she was his personal healer, which was true, in a way. Anytime he so much as got a paper cut, he would smile greasily at her and make her waste charka to heal it. But when they were alone, his black eyes would bore into her green and tell her the real reason. He was torturing her, holding every confession of love over her head and telling her that she was his to do with as he wished.

Sauske wouldn't look at her, not now. He would wait and send the Hyuggas out. Then he would mock her for trying once again to leave this miserable existence she called life behind. He would tell her to wait and she would soon have everything she wanted, because he too, had to wait and move through the ranks when he was with Orochimaru. She knew the entire speech by heart and neither dreaded nor looked forward to what was coming next. She quickly became bored, so she did whatever she was doing something unproductive. She thought of them.



_The sun was setting, turning the ground into liquid polls of fire. Sakura leaned heavily on her shovel, exhausted. Others were standing or sitting around. Lee patted Neji on the back as they stood over TenTen's grave. Shino offered Kiba some water as the Inuzuka heir patted a huge dog with an eye patch. His sister, Hanna, had fought fiercely and had taken down many with her, but had died just an hour ago from a wound Sakura couldn't heal._

_Numbly Sakura watched the sun, not being able to look anywhere else for the overwhelming sadness. There were no markers on the graves, just upturned spaces in the ground. _

_Kakashi approached her, hobbling on the crude crutch Shikamaru had made for him. His right pant's leg was tied just below the kneecap and Sakura had to try hard not to wince. It was hard to see one's idol destabilized so. He clasped a hand on her shoulder tiredly. She didn't look at him, but she listened to what he had to say; he was the only wise voice in these times. _

"_We've finished here." He said quietly. His hiate was loosely tied around his neck. All of them had refused to abandon them, but he now had to keep his eye uncovered all of the time. Sakura wished she hadn't lost hers, but it had been torn from her hair, and at the time, her life seemed more important. Kakashi glanced sideways at her before turning his attention back to the sun. "We're leaving soon."_

_Her throat constricted and she felt all eyes on her. "I know." She managed to croak out._

_The eyes turned away from her. Her voice had said it all. Tears sprung to her eyes as a blonde head turned away. "Sakura, it's fine. Besides, we need some people in here for when we return." Kakashi said, giving her shoulder a light squeeze before hobbling away from her back to Neji, who was having a bit of hard time._

_A few minutes later, the road drained of people. They jumped away to the forest, some leaving behind wet trails of tears. Shino had sent a butterfly Sakura's way. Finally, she was alone except for Naruto. She felt like she was going to start sobbing soon, if he didn't leave her right then. She couldn't bear this quiet, shameful goodbye any longer. _

_Suddnely she was enveloped in warmth, and her face was nestled against something soft. She looked up, and saw Naruto's eyes shut tight against what she knew to be tears. She smirked with nostalgia. Even though his face had angled slightly and he had lost his baby-fat, he still was that twelve-year-old kid yelling that he would be Hokage, and would cry even when his biggest rival was dieing._

_The hug lasted a minute before Naruto stepped away, an entire foot from her, unsure of what Sakura's reaction would be. She gave his hand a squeeze before it slipped away from hers, to his side. He smiled half-heartedly. _

"_Keep your spirits up, Sakura. We'll be back soon and we'll take back this village. Together." Naruto said this so seriously, but looked her in the eye to tell Sakura that he expected her with him on the front line when the time came. "And don't you worry, Sakura. We're going to be back soon." He said this with such fierce conviction that Sakura knew that he was nervous and had no idea when they would be back. "Believe it!" He chuckled the last part out, knowing that as children it annoyed Sakura to no end. She felt something under her chin, and she looked up, to be met by his soft lips. The kiss had lasted all of three seconds, and moments later, he was gone._



"Sakura." His slimy voice reached Sakura's ears and she felt like she had been punched in the gut as she hurtled back to Earth.

She looked around. The ANBUs were gone. She was alone with _him_. She stiffened, as if ready to take a blow. He lifted a hand and curled a finger towards himself. Her stomach clenched and did a back flip at the same time. Sakura silently glided across the floor, and sat with her legs curled across from the Hokage. Her eyes were cast down, away from his. She was tense.

Sauske steepled his fingers and looked at Sakura with a small, sadistic smile. "Now, Sakura. Do you know why I asked you here?"

Sakura grit her teeth and summoned what little courage remained in the fractured corners of her strained mind. "To torture me."

Sauske let out a poisonous, honey dipped chuckle in his throat. "To torture you, Sakura? Now why would I do that?"

"Because you're sick." Sakura raised her eyes to his. "Because you're vile. Because you hate anything you can't have and for that you take over it and beat the innocent. Because you're just like your brother." She spat the last part out and bared her teeth.

Sauske shook with anger. His Sharigan was activated. Sakura was truly scared now. He had beaten her, tortured her mentally, and done everything within his capabilities and others' but he had never, not once, used his Sharigan on her.

He hit her, across the cheek. She flew across the room, hitting her head against the hard wood door. She slumped across the wall, her right arm swung crazily over her chest and her pink hair falling across her face, with her eyes closed. She wanted to stay like. Desperately, she wanted to stay like that. But he was approaching, his footsteps vibrating through the floor and tickling her cheek.

He picked her up by the shirtfront and she opened her eyes halfway. She saw her own weak, pathetic reflection through his blood red eyes. His pupils dilated slightly and the red drained from his eyes. His hand shook and Sakura opened her eyes wider.

Saukse had gotten paler and now he was shaking all over. His breath had shortened, but only one who had known him as long as Sakura had would know it. He tossed her away from him. She caught herself on the door, and watched as he backed away.

"Get out of my sight." He hissed.

Sakura's hand felt for the doorknob and she slipped out of the room. She ran from the room, the Hokage, and the tower. She fled from Hinata, the memories, and the blood drenched streets. Hell, she fled from her own village, the very one that she had never been able to before. She had summoned up her courage and had left.

She had made the great Sauske Uchiha realize that he was worse than his brother.

But at the cost of her home.

She fell in the middle of the forest and didn't get up, finally allowing her tired bones a rest. Finally, groaning, she sat herself up and took out her kunai. She put it trembling to her wrist, scratching herself shallowly a few times. She took it to her head and cut away the hiate on her head. It fell on the green forest floor.

She glared at the hiate for a few minutes before taking the kunai to the hiate, cutting a long, thick line through the sound and leaf symbol. "Never again." She muttered.

Then, her courage, which she had two years ago in abundance, returned as if it had never left, like a wayward cat. She stood on strong legs and walked forward, through the forest. She walked, bruised and beaten, noble as any queen. She walked, thorns tearing at her ragged clothes, stepping as lightly as a bird, her heart finally free. She walked with a hiate with a scratch through it, a traitor's hiate. _My Hiate._

**A/N: I'm still not sure if I like this ending… But it's not over yet! Stick around for the sequel, or if you like this ending, just leave. The next update will be in a few days, depending on how many reviews I get, or just plain hits.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm glad some of you liked it. Even if a whole lot of you didn't, it's still worth it for those who did. I've decided to make this an entire story, though next chapter will probably be the last.**

**Just so none of you freak out when you get to a certain part, this in not, I repeat not a Neji/Sakura fic! Neji's just… a little different now. You'll see why later, but just so I don't get any flames about making this a Neji/Sakura fic when I said it was a Sakura/Naruto fic. Just be patient**.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

Sakura was terribly hungry. Three days worth of starvation gnawed determinedly not only at her stomach, but also at her muscles and mind. For once, she cursed herself for being Tsundae's apprentice, for paying attention so raptly during all of her sessions. She knew exactly what her hunger and frailty was doing to her, and it made her all the weaker.

It was noon and the giant golden ball in the sky (a demon's eye, she decided), glared at her intensely, for a transgression that she could not remember committing, though it was obviously something terrible to keep that awful gaze upon her for so long. After burning her eyes give it a look that said, 'like you could do better', she kept her eyes on the dirt and grass below her, to keep her them from smarting. She winced when the grass turned from forest green to bright shimmering blue.

Sakura blinked. It wasn't grass swirling by her ankles, receding, only to break upon them again coolly. _Water!_ Sakura fell to her knees, burying her hands in the cool mud.

She bent her back, lowered her neck and drank like a dog. She gulped down the water until the it filled her hungry stomach and sloshed around in her body, giving her the most delightful, joyous cramps. She brought herself back to the dry grass and emptied her stomach, before going back to fill it again more slowly. Sakura considered taking a bath. The water was cool and fresh, and heaven knew she needed one, but no, it was too risky.

The first day she was gone, Sasuke must have thought her at home, and she put many miles between herself and the village, wandering aimlessly but with mindless determination. In the second, day, after the curse mark had burned and choked her, she figured out that she was most likely going in the direction of either the Village Hidden in the Rain or the Village Hidden in the Grass. Neither prospect was overly inviting, but even more unappealing was the possibility of being captured by one of Sasuke's servants, or worse. The fake Hokage himself.

She jumped into a tree and rubbed her hands on the rough bark, scratching them and rubbing dirt in the cuts unintentionally. She winced as she remembered her master's healing lessons. She ignored the visions of swollen infected hands from her mind and continued on slowly, making sure she covered her tracks well.

She welcomed the dusk, the small time in between the glowering sun and the silent but remote moon, where she wasn't too hot or too cold. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who enjoyed this time of day. Insects, amounts that Shino would have been elated with, feasted on her blood as if they had survived a great famine. Though she too knew the feeling of extreme hunger, she felt no sympathy for these miniature vampires and batted them away cruelly.

Finally, the temperature dropped to near freezing and the insects went back to their little hives, where dozens of others waited to keep them warm. Sakura had only her thin rags of clothes and a small hole dug out by the waters of a lake in a small quarry. She hugged herself and looked down at her body.

Her clothes were wrinkled and swam on her. The frayed end of a rope poked out from underneath her shirt, keeping her once-white pants tied to her thin hips. Her bony knees were covered in dried blood, dirt, and grass stains. Her legs were dotted with red and purple welts, from where there were the pest bites of three days. She took her thumbs to one of the worse ones and squeezed, ignoring the warning yells her nerves were sending to her. Her skin tore open; crimson blood and sickly yellow-green poison from the bite spurted out for a moment before the mess became a part of her filthiness. The once-pink mark rapidly turned a deep purple, like an unhealed bruise.Sakura winced a berated herself. Now it was likely to get infected. She continued her self-inspection. Her arms were bloody and swollen from the insect bites and the tears of the trees' scraggly branches. She was still unhealthily thin, but her skin had the healthy ruddiness from the fresh air and clean water.

She leaned her tired head against the rough bark of the tree. Despite the hard and uncomfortable nature of her sleeping place, Sakura rested soundly for the third night (or, more like day) in a row.



Unbeknownst to the sleeping woman, she was being watched. She had been watched for the past thirty-six hours, nonstop. The man's grip on the branch he was clinging doggedly to tightened as the unfortunate girl he had known since the days when they were both genin (though he a year older) whimpered pitifully in her sleep.

_Kakashi must be insane. It's obvious that she's not going to attack us, so why wait? She needs medical attention and food, and Sasuke may be here any minute now and we're just sitting here. _Angrily, the man slammed his fist into the coarse bark. _This is the battle all over again, and I can't do anything!_ He raised his abused fist again to send it crashing back to the equally mistreated branch, only to have it come to abrupt stop. He turned his head to look into familiar big black eyes, though the smile that once so long ago accompanied it was long gone.

"Neji, my friend, I know how you feel, for I too know the pain of seeing such a beautiful flower slowly wilt over the course of the years, but I ask you to wait a little longer. Soon we will get the word and we can finally rescue her!" Lee finished with a half-hearted smile.

Neji remained silent. There really was nothing to say beyond that point. Lee stayed with him, probably so he wouldn't intervene. There was a crack and both shinobi's attention was diverted to a group of people.

One in front was wearing the white robes of the Hokage. Even Lee's normal level-headedness was lost for blind rage. This man, this imposter, was aspiring to be someone who he had betrayed. Anyone of the past Hokages would be turning in their graves at the sight of him. Lee fingered his kunai pouch shaking while Neji tensed, ready to spring and kill the moment Sasuke found the tree Sakura was sleeping in.



Sasuke's keen eyes scanned the bushes and his hearing absorbed all the sounds as his group moved through the sunlit forest, so unlike the village they thrived in. He had one thing on his mind, one goal that he hadn't had since his brother, which he had long since abandoned; to find the pink haired kunochi.

He wanted to be the one to kill her. He knew already what he was going to say. He was going to call her a missing ninja; a deserter of the Hidden Leaf Village. He was going to slash and Konohona hiate in front of her eyes and tie it around her fragile neck as he used the curse mark to choke her slowly. He was going to break her like the piece of fragile glass she was.

He fingered the kunai in his hand, cutting his thumb on the flat of the blade. He had stopped at her home to retrieve it. The same one she had tried to use on herself so many times before. It would finally meet its mark.

One of his guards approached him. He gave an imperial nod, no more than a fraction of a degree, to signal it was appropriate to draw near him. The man bowed and held up a single strand of curling hair. It was pink.

A moment later, there was a birdcall from a woman that went to scout ahead. The shinobis moved quickly through the dense forest, though Sasuke found it easier than his former Sound ninjas, having grown up in it. They all landed in the same tree. Below them, Sakura tossed fitfully in her sleep.



Sakura had heard them coming. Oh yes, she had known when they were within a half mile of her, but she stayed where she was, preparing traps. It reminded her of the Chunin exams, in the Forest of Death. She had been all alone, and three precious lives were on the line if she failed. Now she was all alone again, but only her life was on the line, and it wasn't that precious to her anymore. No Sound ninja would not find her in the forest screaming 'I don't want to die!' She could care less.

Sakura was far into the forest on the other side of the lake when she smelt the small amount of smoke that accompanied a successful clone murdered. A few moments later, she heard Sasuke's enraged yell. "After her!"

Adrenaline and pure, animalistic instinct to survive spurred her onwards. She jumped from tree to grass, flipped over boulders, and punched her way through trees that dare get in her way. Now was not the time for quiet and stealth. Now was the time to run, to get away, and to alert every being in the forest that she was being pursued and refused to be caught.

Unfortunately, neither the forest nor her malnourished body had the same ideas. Sure, for a while she could randomly crash through anything and not feel the pain of it, for a few minutes, at least. But as the hour ticked by, Sakura's body became heavy and her chest burned with cold fire. Her throat and mouth were dry and every breath was a dagger, slowly slicing its way out of her neck.

Finally, a little less than an hour and a half of running and slowing, a kunai caught her in the leg. Sakura's vision blurred as she hit the ground, from tears of pain or through exhaustion she did not know which.

She felt herself being hauled off the ground and stared dumbly into one of Sasuke's minion's faces. A small snake of guilt and sadness writhed in her stomach. It was a Hyugga. A young one. He was more likely not older than twelve, barely a genin, yet he was serving the Hokage as loyally as she had been willing to at his age. She could not wish a horrible, painful death on him as she could all the others. They, at least, had made the choice to betray their village.

_Of course, so have I_. She thought sadly. _I gave in. I healed people I grew up with for rounds of torture. I healed that dictator when others braver than me worked so hard to give him those wounds and let him control me like a puppet on strings. __**I did nothing! **_She thought vehemently.

The Hyugga raised his hand. In it was a kunai. Sakura felt her stomach jump. She wanted to die, she deserved to die, but she did not want to expire like this. At the hands of a traitor's slave, alone where her body would be left for the forest to pick at, at its discretion. She wanted to fight, to redeem herself! She wanted to take down as many enemies as she could with her!

"Now, traitor, you die." The Hyugga hissed. The kunai glinted harshly in the sunlight.

A moment later, a kunai hit its mark.

It was not the Hyugga's.

Sasuke chuckled as he slid the knife out of the Hyugga's head. It had been a good throw, though what could one expect? The man had held the Hokage position for two years, despite being at war with Suna as well as straining relations with Kiri. There was not a country in the world that did not have a good reason to have his head.

Sasuke tilted the kunai towards him, watching as the blood dripped off slowly. Just one movement, one slight bump to his elbow, and the kunai would go into his eye far enough to pierce his brain. There would be no healing him from that; he would be dead instantly. But Sakura knew him better than that. She would not be able to take him down… so maybe his cronies?

Maybe she could try the charka release jutsu Tsundae had taught her. _But what am I suppose to do? _Her thoughts copied Tsundae's words exactly, not forgetting the gruff way her master had spoken to her. _Listen up, girl. If you're going to die, absolutely definitely going to die, then you might as well take as many enemies with you as possible. You will have to learn to do the Five Star Blast jutsu. Not many remember how to this, so pay attention and for the love of the gods above, do not teach this to anyone besides someone who is undoubtedly loyal to this village._

Sakura's thoughts took over._ Gather the charka into the center of my body, wait for it to expand, simmer it down, and then move it to my heart. Direct it through the body in equal blasts, pooling it in my hands, chest, brain and feet. Continue to do this until your body is blasted away. The backlash will cause the skin to melt off an unprepared enemy's body. _

Sakura got a determined glint in her eye. _Sasuke will find a way to shield himself, but not before he gets hit at least a little. Injuries from such a wound that the Five Star Blast inflicts cannot be healed save for master healers. By time he figures that out, the only one that would be willing to heal him will be long dead, and so will everyone else in this glade. _Sakura nearly laughed with the horrifying magnitude of her incontestable plan.

All the while, Sasuke had been talking, gloating over his victory. "You almost got away. But now…" Sasuke took a hiate from his belt and slashed it, "… I'll pass judgment on you, traitor."

Sakura backed her head away from the hiate, trying desperately to not let it touch her as if it would taint her. Sasuke stopped his advanced and moved his hand slightly to the side, swinging the hiate, which gained momentum as it swung. His smile slid across his face like water on a glass pane.

"What? Don't you want it, Sakura? It is yours, after all." Sauske inched the long-hunted band towards her face.

Sakura watched it with cat-like eyes. The insignia of the Leaf Village stared back at her sadly. There was a nick metal, near the top. A small tear in the blue ribbon had been carefully sewed. This hiate had seen many a great fight; a myriad losses and wins. This hiate was hers; the very one she had worn the day of the final fight. How badly she wanted to touch it, to feel it in her hair.

But even as she looked on the scratch in the center, she felt that feeling melt away. Those times when she had been lucky to even wear the hiate, when Kakashi could trick her by sending a bloodied genjutsu her way, those were gone. The times when her enmity with her now dead rival was so important, was now meaningless, dust in the wind. Even after Tsunade had trained her, and she had become something her village could be proud of, that feeling of pride and honor that she had waited to return to her along with the hiate, did not. The sense of accomplishment did not swell in her chest. The memories were just that, memories that could be called upon, but could not be relived. Sai, Kakashi, the other teams, Tsundae Naruto, yes, even Sasuke, before he had become what he was, reflected at her in the shiny metal, before moving away from her. Forever.

All this time, Sauske had been talking, speaking meaningless words that fell on deaf ears. Sakura looked behind him, at the dead Hyugga, and felt hate coil in her chest like a cobra. She looked beyond the corpse at his other followers. A man was staring longingly into the brush, and seemed ready to bolt if given the chance. Sakura felt a hint of remorse, but tore her gaze away before she lost her nerve. A woman, young with shiny purple hair, stared admiringly at her leader with (Sakura's snake hissed in disgust) love. Sakura saw her own face, years before, reflected in the woman's eyes, and the way she held herself, presumably ready to rush forward to be accepted into loving arms. The other two men stared at their chief with dumb loyalty.

"… Sakura, it's time to die." Sasuke finished quietly.

Sakura met his gaze. "Yes, it is."



The ninjas, plus one, were hidden in the trees, tensed. They could not come closer than one hundred yards; for fear that Sasuke or the others sensed them. They were so far back that in the dense forest, the only indicator that the malevolent group was still with their captor was Neji's byakkugan.

The lavender-eyed man frowned as he sensed a spike in chakra. "Lee… something's not right…"

"What is it, Neji?" Lee asked quietly.

"It's the Five Star Blast Jutsu, a Forbidden jutsu that is deadly to both the victim and the assailant." Neither man jump as the deep voice of the middle-aged man joined them. "Lee, Neji, we need to move fast. Distract Sasuke and the others, while I grab Sakura. Do not continue your attack once I am gone and do not allow your faces to be seen."

"Right." Neji said, tensing.

"But…" Lee started, unsure.

"Go!"



Warmth flooded through Sakura's body and she wondered why she had not thought of this before. Why not go out in such a splendidly victorious way? She'd kill everyone in the area, and wound Sasuke. If Naruto and the others were out there, they would have a chance. If not… she would see them on the other side.

Her charka moved discreetly, like a band of lionesses. Not even Sasuke could detect the flow of it through her veins and muscles. The kunai bit into her neck, and hot blood ran down her throat, but she did not feel the pain. Her eyes were clear for the first time in years, and she could see that for once, Sasuke was unsure of himself.

Then, suddenly, Sakura's concentration was broken. She was hurtling to the ground, and her body reacted before her broken mind did. Craters three feet deep appeared where her hands were. The ground absorbed her charka faster than a dry cloth did water.

The next moment, wind was hitting her face at a breakneck speed. She wiggled; trying to get free of the grasp of whatever she was sure had her. A hand was clapped over her mouth and outraged voices in the distance grew faint. She kicked, and hit something with a resounding crack.

"Sakura! Stop!" A voice hissed in her ear.

The voice. So shockingly familiar, so long sought-after, stopped Sakura's heart the minute she heard it. Her face turned towards his. A red eye stared back at her, capturing her eyes and confirming who it was. Sakura's mouth twitched oddly. It took her a minute to realize that this was a genuine smile, and it was coming from her. And then she fainted.



"She's experiencing some traumatic shock right now, but from what I can tell, she should pull through."

"Should?"

"She's strong, Kakashi. This won't keep her down."

"It's been two years, Shizune. We have no idea what she's been through."

"The text book answer would be that she is going to be out for a few days."

Kakashi swore lightly under his breath.

"My answer is she will wake up today."

There was no response.

Sakura wanted to sit up and say 'and my answer is right now' or something to that affect, but her bones felt like lead and however many times she tried to move, her muscles would tighten and she would not move an inch. Her throat was too dry to talk, anyway. So she sat, deciding to wait whatever was afflicting her out.

More people came and went. She could hear their voices and felt their stares. A few times she felt someone was in the room, but they would not talk. If Shizune came out and asked them, the person would express amazement and then leave. No matter what, though, there was always at least one person looking at her.

A few hours later, Sakura could feel a dull ache as the feeling came back into her body. She groaned and there was a startle gasp. A cool hand was on her brow. She groaned again, fainter this time, she knew.

"Sakura, if you can hear me, please open your eyes." Shizune's tearful voice rattled Sakura's senses, and her eyes snapped open. Her vision was blurry, but Shizune's dark hair and the tender feel of her hands was all she needed to know that the woman was there with her, instead of just another hallucination. She tried to speak, but her mouth would not even open. Shizune shook her head. "Sakura, you can't speak yet. Blink if you want some water.

Sakura blinked.

Shizune gently lowered a thin, wet cloth to Sakura's lip, which she moistened before parting and sliding the uncomfortable fabric into Sakura's mouth. The pink-haired woman was able to move her tongue around the cloth a few times before giving up out of fatigue. Shizune seemed to sense that Sakura could not take anymore, so she took the cloth away.

Gently the older woman tested Sakura's pulse and fumbled with the IV sticking out of her hand. Sakura swallowed painfully a few times and opened her mouth to speak again. She was able to croak once before wincing. Shizune's face came back into view.

"Sakura, just wait an hour before you try to talk. You've been through a traumatic experience; you know how important it is for you to take it easy. You can move your arms and he water is just beside you."

Sakura nodded and tried to relax. Before she knew it, she fell once again into a deep, deep slumber.



When Sakura awoke, she automatically stretched her senses, looking for unwelcome chakra signatures. She had gotten no more than a two foot radius when she stopped herself. She was among friends now, surrounded by people she knew intimately through the vulnerability of character in adolescence and distantly through the mask of starvation, exile and loss that they all had had to suffer through.

But she did feel a charkra signature as her senses seeped out on their own accord, natural to her now after living so long needing to know exactly what was happening. It was not Shizune's. Sakura sat bolt-up in the bed.

"Hey Sakura, you're finally up."

Sakura heard his voice, and shut her eyes tight against it. He had done this before, many times, when she had been bad; when she needed to be punished.

She was not out of the Village.

She was not with friends.

She was not free.

Sasuke was using a genjutsu on her. He had never managed to do something this elaborate, to make her think that she had been gone for three days. She was probably still back in his office. But always ended the same.

His voice.

Naruto's.

She felt something holding her hand. "Sakura, please, look at me."

She shook her head stubbornly, biting her lip and squeezing her eyelids together until it hurt. She would _not_ open her eyes. She would not see Sasuke's face again; she could not handle it.

She felt her chin taken in a hand, callused but gentle. Sasuke would never let the genjutsu go this far. He probably could not, as genjutsu was his weakest area. Sakura cracked open an eyelid. The sight of him was like a drug; soon she could not help it but open her eyes fully.

He was different than before. His baby-fat that had softened his face when he left was gone now, his face angled, giving him a more fox-like look. There was a small scar along his jaw (where a kunai had missed his eye) and along the expanse of his neck (where a careless assassin had failed to slit his throat); His blue eyes sparkled with youth that Lee would envy. Blonde, tousled hair hung low over his forehead, but the glint of metal and the missed sign of the leaf could still be seen by Sakura.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, her eyes filling with tears (of happiness of seeing her friend or of fear that this was not real she did not care to know."

Naruto smiled the same smile he had years ago, before all of this started. In that moment, Sakura knew that this was no gnejutsu. Sasuke could never capture this, the one beautiful, shining moment that made three years of torture, starvation and captivity worth it.

His forehead touched her, his hands on either side of her face.

"Believe it."


End file.
